Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Marboeuf, Ulysse
• Petit, Jean-Marc
• Mousis, Olivier

Titel

Can collisional activity produce a crystallization of Edgeworth–Kuiper Belt comets?

Ist Teil von

• Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2009-07, Vol.397 (1), p.L74-L78

Ort / Verlag

Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Kuiper Belt Objects and cometary nuclei are considered among the most pristine bodies of the outer Solar system. However, the composition of these objects might not reflect that of the planetesimals from which they accreted. They have experienced some collisional activity since the formation of the Edgeworth–Kuiper Belt, leading to a possible alteration of their structure and composition. Here, we examine the possible alteration of icy bodies (10 to 100 km radii) located in the primitive Edgeworth–Kuiper Belt due to the heat generated by collisions of planetesimals with sizes not exceeding 10 per cent of the target body. We use a cometary nucleus model initially made of a mixture of amorphous ice and dust to investigate the influence of the target's intrinsic properties on its post-impact thermodynamical evolution. We show that multiple collisions must be considered over long periods to trigger a continuous crystallization within a target owning a typical cometary composition. However, the collision rates we have determined are approximately 1000 times greater than those predicted for the current collisional environment in the Edgeworth–Kuiper Belt. This implies that the collisional processes that occurred over the age of the Solar system did not produce any phase transition of H2O ice from amorphous to crystalline forms in cometary size bodies located in the primitive Edgeworth–Kuiper Belt.